Reviews research on causes of aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. Highlights sex differences in aggressive behavior. Describes several aggression intervention and prevention programs. (PKP)

Study compares bullying behavior among juvenile and young offenders. Ninety-five male juvenile and 196 male young offenders completed two questionnaires, measuring bullying directly and behaviors indicative of "being bullied" or of "bullying others". Juveniles perceived a higher extent of bullying and reported significantly…

The present study attempted to replicate the findings of the Zahavi and Asher (1978) study with Head Start preschoolers. These authors found that brief oral instructions decreased observed aggressive behavior. This study found limited support for the effectiveness of brief oral instructions. Teacher ratings did reveal significant improvements in…

Examined changes in self-mutilation, aggression, and running away for 32 teenagers in residential treatment who experienced interpersonal loss when staff members left employment. Data from four-year period revealed that frequency of self-mutilation increased significantly during time of anticipated loss. Found no significant change in aggression…

Examined adequacy of Human Figure Drawing (HFD) as diagnostic instrument for differentiating aggressive and nonaggressive behavior in 4- and 5-year olds. Findings from 16 aggressive and 16 nonaggressive children revealed that HFD was not valid instrument for differentiating aggressive and nonaggressive children in this age group. (Author/NB)

Notes crisis in spirit of hope within society, and growing pessimism that there are no workable solutions to massive social problems facing communities. Explains conflict cycle of stress, feelings, behavior, and reactions, then moves beyond theater of punishment with call to action. Recommends fighting three-front war of primary prevention, early…

Examines biochemical measures in a population of forensic psychiatric inpatients. Regression equations utilizing chemical and biological variables were developed and evaluated to determine their value in predicting the severity and frequency of aggression. Findings strongly suggest the presence of specific biochemical alteration among those…

Examines the convergence of 6 measures of aggression in a group of 43 children and adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders. The results suggest that measurement of clinically salient physical aggression requires multiple informant sources and that the Child Behavior Checklist and Iowa Conners Aggression Factor are assessing dimensions other…

Examined verbal/symbolic aggression between partners in 5,232 U.S. couples. Found that men and women engaged in about equal amounts of verbal/symbolic aggression against their partners. Probability of frequent verbal/symbolic aggression against partner tended to decrease with age and number of children in family and to increase with occurrence of…

Explores the nature of trait verbal aggressiveness. Identifies types of verbally aggressive messages used by college students, beliefs about hurt, and reasons for use that distinguish high from low verbal aggressives. Finds that high verbal aggressive students are prone to using self-concept attacking messages. (SR)

Tested situational factors as predictors of types of individual aggressive incidents in male prison population. Categorized incidents of violence by whether occurrence of infraction involved aggressive behavior directed at staff, another inmate, self, or property. Found that situational variables did serve as predictors of these categories of…

Finds that the initiators of verbal aggression in a discussion were seen by observers as less credible and had fewer valid arguments credited to them, whereas targets of verbal aggression were seen as more credible and were credited with more valid arguments when they reciprocated a level of verbal aggression. (SR)

Performed meta-analyses on nine studies of subjects' (n=434) penile responsivity to rape stimuli. Mean effect size for raw score data suggested that most sexual aggressors against women exhibit slightly more rape arousal than control or comparison subjects, whereas mean effect size for rape index (rape arousal:consenting sexual arousal) data…

The relationships among psychopathic personality traits, rape-supportive attitudes, and self-reported sexual aggression were examined (N=191). Both psychopathic traits and rape-supportive attitudes were strongly related to degree of sexual aggression; however, there was no evidence that traits and attitudes as currently measured play different…

Examines a corpus of audio and audiovisual recordings of people engaged in acrimonious argument, in which complaints and accusations are being made about the behavior of copresent parties. Analysis focuses on the sequences immediately following complaints. (Author/VWL)